Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-02-10
SONGS OF THE TIMES.
Where Nearly all the Popu-
lar Ballads Come From.
PLAGIARIzED FROM OLD SONGS.
How Modern Melody Publishers
Secure Successes, while the AL
legged Authors Starve.

Everybody loves lover" and nearl
everybody loves a good song. A fey
great mon have been exceptions, as wa
General Grant. Did you ever think
good reader. that out of seven notes ar
built all the songs that have ever beel
sung. New songs by the score are wri,
ten every day in the year. but the sevel
little notes, warped. twisted, and tant
allied, repeated and worked in combin
alton, over and over, must furnish al
the alleged melodies.
SIS there any such element as origin
ality in song to dayy" asked Mail MAJ
of q professor OF music.
CLEANED the field with the greatest thor
oughness, but there are men toiling ia
day and doing splendid work with tn
seven notes."
us there not more plagiarism thai
originality in the common run of popula
songs!'
'Yes, / think there is. You hav,
heard Joe Emmett sing Love of tn,
Shamrock it is o musty and venerabl,
Church hymn revived and revamped
Byron's ords:
Maid of Athens, ere we part,
Give, o, give me back my heart,
were set to tune which will outlive ths
centuries. You hear the melody now il
when the Robins Nest again. Krohn,
famous German song writer, produced
Tho Cavaliers Whisper. and copyright
ed ii. The copyright having expired,
along comes the actor, w. J. Scanlan,
and Incorporates it in
Peek-a.boo. I'm onto you,
see you hiding there.
Three years age that old chastnutty
air took the country by storm. Scanlan,
of course, sings it in faster time by
making eighth notes out of quarters.
Twenty years ago On English song.
writer produced:
There was young man on the flying trap.
His movements were graceful, the girls
he did please.
sIu 'Adonis' Dixey revives The Fly.
ing Trapezs' in It's English, You Know.
But here is an instance of positive pro-
fanati0n: Mendelssohn's magnificent
oratorio of St. Paul has q chorus en-.
titled How Lovely are the Messengers.
The man who wrote 'Billee Taylor re.
wives the music of that chorus in All
on Account of Elizi.'"
"What proportion of the ballads OF
the day are thefts!'
q ssOver half of them. A superb funeral
march by Chopin is now heard in Some.
'body's Coming When the Dewdrops
Fall To the Blue Bells of Scotland
mnsic you arc requested to 'Wait Till
the Clouds Roll By The chorus of
Americas Emblem is stolen form Ira
D. Sankey's Pull for the Shore Clari.
bells You and L is now doing duty as
Twinkle, Little Stars
''In 1864 was in New York, and 60
ing one night into the Tammany Theatre,
l heard Dan Bryant sing 'Shoo Fly,
The refrain was:
Shoe fiy, don't bodder me,
For belong to Company @.
s'In two weeks every street arab was
singing or whistling 'Snoo Fly:
Ifeel. 1 feel. 1 feel.
That's what my mother said;
The angels pouring lasses down
Upon dis darky's head.
"Two months later the country was
delirious over this Aimsy ballad. six
months lateS it was dead. From 1861 to
1865 when This Cruel War Is Over
was sung in every home North aud
South. 1t crossed the ocean aud became
popular in England:
Dearest love, do you remember,
When we last did meet;
How you told me that YOU loved me.
Kneeling at my feety
"Ths melodyIinto which those words
were welded was written years before
the war. A young music teacher in
Brooklyn visited Greenwood Cemetry
one day, and upon his return jotted
down the notes TO little song which he
entitled; Darling, Meet Me in the
Greenwood TIE modest fellow, after
writing the music and chorus, placed
the manuscript in his desk, where it re-
mained seven years. In 1861, while
looking over some old papers, he found
the Greenwood song, aud soon had it on
the market aS'Dsarest Love, Do You
Remember or 'When This Cruel War
Is Over Talk about successl 1t sold
faster than 'Shoo Fly and remained a
favorite for five years"
"What did the composer realize out
Of it,"
y ssVery little, am sorry to say. He
died in Brooklyn, roor, about ten years
age. His name was Henry Tucker. He
also wrote 'Genevieve' and other sweet
ballads. He was all music, poor fellow,
and up to week or SO before his death
would sit at piano and try to sing,
with his cracked and plaintive falsettc
tones"
"Whas song has been financially most
successful ?"
"'Grandfather's olock;' it nettcd
$50. 1000"
s'Nhat is the average life of a song?'
"Two years. A song like Sweet By.
aud By is, Of course. an exception.
Probably you never heard of Jim Stew.
art. of Cincinnati. He died in the work.
house. His song, Only to see Her Face
Again, will live while ballads do. Drink
killed Stewart"
"Have you heard Call Me Back
"Yos; but please don't. That is u
! clear transportation of an Irish melody
100 years old, at least''
"Has not Frank Howard, the burnt.
cork comedian, made money out of bal.
lads 2"
sit ir claimed, and truthfully, that
Frank Howard has made q fortune out
Of three songs, Only Pansy Blossom,
when the Robins Nest Again. and I'll
u Wait MY Love-" 1t is claimed that
Howard did not write one of them, but
purchased them from New York boy
named Spencer"
"Then, when you hear piece which
reminds you Of one you have heard
before"
.sYou can be sure it's q steal."-[N.
Y. Mail and Express.
A DMel with Symmcs.
In the Southern Bivouac for Feb uary
Is an interesting article on John Cleves